Trump administration shifts on wiretapping claim

World Today

DJT

The U.S. congress said it wanted specifics on allegations from President Trump that President Obama had his phones tapped. Congress is still waiting for the specifics, as the White House again tried to deflect criticism.

CGTN’s Sean Callebs reports.

Invoking the word, “clarification” is a time honored tradition in Washington, D.C. politics. Once again, it took center stage at the daily White House briefing.

“I think there’s no question that the Obama administration, that there were actions of surveillance and other activities that occurred in the 2016 election. The president used the word wiretaps in quote to mean broadly, surveillance and other activities,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said.

U.S. President Donald Trump fired off at least three tweets on March 4 accusing former President Obama of “wire-tapping”.

“He doesn’t really think that President Obama went up and tapped his phone personally,” Spicer said.

But many Democrats and some Republicans said that is exactly the way Trump made it sound  and his tweets were crystal clear. Leaders in the U.S. congress gave Trump a Monday deadline for offering proof or backing off the accusation.

On the heels of Wikileaks releasing alleged CIA secrets on how they spy on people, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said Trump has reason to be concerned.

“There was an article this week, that talked about how you can surveil someone,through their phones, through their television sets – and any numbers of ways microwaves that turn into cameras, we know that is a fact of modern day life,” Conway said.

Conway offered her own, clarification, saying, she was talking about overall spying and it was not a reference to Trump’s wiretapping allegations.

The White House clarifications do little to appease Trump’s staunchest critics. Trump’s spokesman says the president has asked the Department of Justice to investigate the allegations. In the end, the DOJ will have the responsibility of reporting what did or did not happen to congress.